Well, the last part of my trilogy. Wohoo! Go me! No seriously, I'm relieved to have finished it. )

Dislc.: In my last story I claimed that I had gotten the rights of Harry Potter. Yesterday, Professor Umbridge made me do lines. "I must not tell lies." (I'm sure you all remember). The back of my hand hurts. Really.

The first part would have been "Walk The Plank", second one "A Family Affair". But it can be read alone. (Read the others, too, anyway!)

Up Is Down

T'was their first shift together since early december the previous year.

Febuary began cold and rainy, uncomfortable, let's just say english. The sky held a stony grey and the plants in and around London were still fast asleep.

It was 9 pm when Nymphadora Tonks stumbled up the stairs of #12 Grimmauld Place. Peering left and right to make sure nobody way spying, she pulled her wand and was about to tip the wooden door, but was slightly startled and off-balanced when the door flung open with a heavy creak and revealed Remus Lupin, her partner on duty for this night.

She jerked and lost her footing, but Remus had been prepared for that case. He reached out and pulled her onto her feet again, his arm wrapping securely around her waist.

"Wotcher Remus!" she grinned, a deep blush creeping up onto her face. He gazed at her, his welcoming smile quickly fading, while his pulse quickened.

Tonks felt herself wondering if he was about to do something, or just stand right there on the threshold, holding her in his arms, because that would be perfectly fine with her.

But just as she thought about what else exactly she wanted him to do – in spite of holding her like this - he seemed to snap out of his daze. Little did she know; he had thought of the same thing she had.

Order duty. he reminded himself.

"Hello Nymphadora." he said instead, releasing her and stepping inside the cold, dark house. She sighed - a little bit disappointed - and followed him in.

"I just need to get my cloak." Remus told her and reached to his left for the coat-rack.

"I'm sorry to be late, I tried to Apparate, but I was so distracted that I splinched myself and-"

The rest of her explanation got struck in her throat, because Remus had turned to her with a look on his face that made her knees go weak. There was worry and a mixture of affection and something else written over his lined face.

He stepped forward and stood in front of her, looking for obvious injuries.

"It's alright, just a bit of flesh gone from my right shoulder..." she whispered in order not to wake Mrs Black.

Remus slipped her robe off said shoulder and she winced slightly. Getting undressed by Remus was a recent fantasy of hers and the blush from before - which had vanished already - was back full force when he carefully removed the cloth from her shoulder.

Remus felt her shivering when he touched her exposed shoulder, which made him shiver return. Inwardly rolling his eyes at himself and his feelings, he took a deep breath and waved his wand over the bleeding gash.

Tonks let out her breath - when had she started holding it? - and looked into Remus' eyes. "Thanks." she whispered.

He smiled kindly and replaced her clothing on her shoulder, letting his hand linger on her smooth pale skin just a moment longer than necessary.

"Come on" he said, opening the door for her. "Sirius is just completely insufferable today and we don't want to lose more time than we already have."

Tonks followed Remus out of the house and helped him replacing the chains and charms on the door.

"Have you seen Snape these days?" she asked, and he did not miss the amusement in her voice.

"Yes. He has been rushing in and out of headquarters frequently and he always left grumpier than before. I suppose you have not seen him since you turned his hair pink?" Remus answered, equally amused.

"No. D'you reckon he'll try to curse me next time we'll meet?" she asked and now he was most troubled to hear the slightest bit of worry in her voice.

"Not if I can help it." Remus responded, smiling.

"Well I need to make sure you will be around then, next time I come to visit yo- Sirius."

Bugger! Why can't I just say what I mean! Next time I come to visit YOU!

She had long ago given up to convince herself that she was only visiting Sirius. Any time she entered the house, she hoped Remus would walk through the kitchen door in order to rescue her from the umbrella stand of doom... and got very disappointed when only Sirius turned up to laugh at her.

But Remus seemed to know exactly what she had been about to say, she noticed, because of the sly grin he now wore.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Tonks asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Knockturn Alley. Alastor obviously thought we needed to get out of this house. He wants us to have a look on the current business there, you know, offer and request." Remus paused as to consider if he should say the next thing or not. "He suggested we could arrest some Death Eaters while we're at it."

Tonks moaned. "Why can't Death Eaters just meet in restaurants or cafés or other nice warm places where you can actually get a decent meal...?"

Remus chuckled. "If I didn't know better, I certainly would assume that you're hungry?"

Tonks mock-glared at him. "Nooo! I'm not hungry at all." she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I could eat a whole cow."

"Let's see if we can get you some fast-food on the way." he suggested, smiling sympathetically.

They'd been walking fast in order to keep themselves warm and when they reached the leaky cauldron, Tom the innkeeper looked up hopefully. Obviously, the pub wasn't going too well at the moment. There were only a handful of guests - gloomy looking, hooded figures - and Remus assumed that Tom would have been more than grateful to have a half-breed and a freak (according to Mrs Black) as guests.

He continued to polish a glass with a dirty cloth when Remus and Tonks exited the room on the other side, stepping into a small court, surrounded by walls.

Remus pulled his wand and tapped the third brick to the right above the dustbin. The wall before them began to reveal an archway and the Auror and the werewolf stepped through it, entering Diagon Alley. They had almost reached the entrance to Knockturn Alley when Remus suddenly remembered something. He took Tonks' wrist and pulled her into the entrance of a closed shop.

Tonks was taken by surprise, but she stopped protesting when she looked into his eyes.

"You might want to change, I thought. Disguise." he answered her puzzled look.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I forgot."

Remus watched fascinated when she screwed her eyes shut and her shoulder length, violet hair turned dark brown. Her skin also darkened considerably, so when she pulled her own hood over her head, one was not able to recognize her features.

She grinned cheekily up at him.

Remus let go of her wrist and pulled his own hood up as well. They took off towards Knockturn Alley, especially vigilant during the whole process. The street was far more crowded than Diagon Alley. The only source of light was the bright half-moon hanging in the sky like it was glued to the firmament. The only evidence that the shops were open were the figures entering and exiting from time to time.

The windows of the shops were dusty and even if there had been light inside, it would scarcely have reached the street through the blackened glass. Here and there one could see old carriages standing in front of a shop, filled with strange things labelled "fly wings", "frog innards" or "dragon flesh".

Tonks shuddered involuntarily. They walked slowly, taking their time to observe everything and everyone. When a scary looking man watched Tonks with more interest than necessary in Remus' opinion, he put an arm possesively around her waist. Tonks snuggled into his touch, momentarily forgetting the mission.

About ten minutes after this event, they turned a corner and saw a group of hooded people standing in a small circle, apparently paying attention to something of mild interest.

Remus and Tonks exchanged a quick glance and approached the group. Standing behind a smaller man, Remus and Tonks saw an old, wild-looking wizard standing in the middle of the group, holding a funny shaped bent horn.

"... has a list of special abilities: it produces highly dangerous poison, very handy when it comes to getting rid of certain creatures" (Tonks frowned) "and if worn somewhere on the body, it enables others to see the owner, unless he wants them to..."

Remus and Tonks looket at each other in horror. A moving cloud had just thrown a column of light onto the horn. It shimmered in the moonlight and they both recognized the colour.

It was an erumpent's horn.

Very rare, but highly dangerous, too. Likely to explode at the slightest touch. Tonks silently quoted from one of her old Auror training books.

She slowly took a step backwards, and when Remus continued to stare at the item like he had been stupor-ed, she carefully took his hand and pulled him along.

When they were about five steps away from the crowd, they turned and ran. A few people noticed their retreat and - being friendly as they were – began shooting curses after the two.

Tonks sped through the alley, Remus right beside her, and threw spells over her shoulder in the process.

The moment they reached Diagon Alley again, Remus pulled her into the closed shop's entrance from before again, caught her in a tight embrace and Disapparated.

When the feeling of a hook pulling at her guts stopped, Tonks opened her eyes and looked up at Remus. He was staring down at her, breathless. Her own breathing was rapid, too, she only partly blamed the run for that fact.

Standing in a side road near Grimmauld Place, Remus watched her for the second time that night screwing up her face until she was back to her usual self; dark eyes, pink hair and pale skin.

And that did it. He could not hold himself back anymore. Arms still around her, Remus pushed her up against the wall behind her and bent his head until his lips connected with hers.

Tonks closed her eyes instinctively, delighted by the taste of Remus' lips on hers (he must have had chocolate recently). She wrapped her arms around his neck and thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of her stomach turned upside down, her knees going weeker by the second.

Remus slowly deepened the kiss, not wanting to miss the touch of her lips one second. One of his hands caressed it's way to the back of her neck, drawing her even closer if it was possible. He felt his blood race through his veins and if he didn't know better he would be afraid his heart could burst. He felt as though the world had turned over.

Eventually Remus pulled away, breathing even heavier than before, and gazed down into her dark sparkling eyes. He grinned, knowing for sure that he was the reason for the bright sparkle in them right now. Tonks looked as though she had just received the first - and best - prize ever, even though a hint of bemused disbelief was mixed in that look.

He couldn't hold it back any longer, so he placed another light kiss on her lips and burst out laughing. He was so happy that he just had to laugh right now, because he thought it was right.

Tonks began to laugh as well, utter relief on her face, relief that this apparently was no dream and no fantasy of hers. Remus pulled her back into him, embracing her, so that she was actually lifted off the ground. He swung her around slowly, burying his face into her neck as he did so.

Tonks only held on tighter.

After what seemed like hours standing there, embracing, bathing in the others' warmth, reality caught up with Tonks.

"Let's get to Grimmauld Place. We have to write the report for Mad-Eye." She grinned mischievously. "And theres a sofa and a fireplace in the living room."

Remus happily obliged.

special Thanks to: pet-muchkin Danke für die netten Kommentare! )

The end of the trilogy.

I'm happy I finished it! Comments welcome! Flames, too, it's only 3° C here… ;-)